The Zoologist— July, 1870. 2211 



Philadelphia, and Mus. Smiths. Inst., from various localities. Not 

 known to occur as far south as Washington Territory, U.S., though 

 found in the Japan Sea. 



Smallest of the auks, with the exception of S. pusillus. Bill very 

 short, not half as long as the head, stout, deep, wide, little compressed, 

 obtuse at the tip; its width at base nearly equalling its height at the 

 same point, and but little less than the length of culmen. A small but 

 conspicuous globular tubercle arising from base of culmen, beyond 

 which the culmen is strongly arched, very regularly convex, rapidly 

 descending, its tip not very acute, obsoletely notched on the tomia, 

 very slightly overhanging the tip of under mandible. Commissure 

 almost straight its whole length, the extremity very slightly ascending. 

 Gonys short, rapidly ascending, very slightly convex. Nostrils in a 

 short but wide and deep fossa, placed rather higher up above the 

 commissure than in some species, narrowly linear, not reached by the 

 frontal feathers. Frontal feathers extending to the node on the cul- 

 men, then retreating obliquely backwards as they descend along the 

 sides of the upper mandible ; feathers on side of lower mandible 

 extending farther than on upper mandible. Proportions of wings, tail, 

 legs and feet as in other species of the genus. 



Adult. — Forehead and lores conspicuously marked with delicate 

 hairlines of white, produced by numerous short, stiff, but very slender 

 white setaceous feathers scattered thickly thereover ; a few of which 

 filaments, more elongated and thread-like than the frontal ones, stretch 

 adown the sides of the head to below the level of the jaw ; and a few 

 more excessively delicate ones reach from the posterior canthus of the 

 eye some distance along the sides of the occiput and nape. Entire 

 upper parts, including the forehead, vertex, occiput and sides of head 

 (with the exception of the white feathers just described), sides of neck, 

 and wings and tail, glossy black. Inner webs of the primaries dusky 

 gray. Under wing-coverts (except the smallest row just along the 

 antibrachium and metacarpus) white. Region about base of under 

 mandible blackish plumbeous, and a few feathers along the sides under 

 the wings and on the flanks blackish ; all other under parts white, 

 mottled, especially on the breast and sides, with black, the throat 

 alone remaining immaculate. Bill red, tubercle and base of upper 

 mandible dark bluish. Legs and feet an undefinable dusky in the 

 dried state ; the anterior border of the tarsus and superior aspect of 

 the toes dull greenish. 



Length about 6*50; wing from carpus 3-75; tail 1-25; tarsus 



